Author: Jack Blood

Next Friday!!!! Pretty Psyched! Our First show of 2018! *** w/ Uranus (their first official show) and Guardian Alien (one of the funnest LIVE shows in town !!!! A must see!) My first time playing Blue Moon… And if you don’t SHOW UP… Maybe my last haha. Free Parking, right off I-5 and cheap beers. Dead On Cue is 2nd at about 10 pm – We have several new songs to intro ~ https://www.facebook.com/events/197300477488959/

As some of you may know, after 20 yrs on the airnet waves – I took a year off. The reason why was pretty simple. I was bored with endless election speculation and coverage.
In many ways this has not changed.

It was a great year! I wrote, recorded, and performed a whole lot of music.

But my passion is truth.

Always has been.

I am good at finding it – and so are the people I know.

And we need it now above all else.

Libertarians, progressives (yep), and “truthers” * We have fell’d in line of the state, the war / police / O’trumpa / GlobalCorp ™ powers that be.

– I found myself spending more and more time debunking social / news media. Asking myself who is crazier?
Without a bandwagon to climb on. Like you.

So about 1 month ago – I started doing some semi-private broadcasts….. DJ ing. Now that I have my chops back (Allegedly),
*** I have decided to take the radio show to the world. One more time.

PRESS RELEASE:

Monday – June 12th 2017, Radiogun Jack Blood will return to the “web-waves”.

Info always on Radio Free Blood FB page at Radio Free Blood. Please go like us there.

You can always listen from the HOME PAGE of Jack Blood – DeadlineLive.Info (We also have years of archives featuring celebrity guests and historical content. Always Free.)

AFR is the choice, not only because our most trusted friends run it, and because they are also here in Washington State (The New Hampshire of the West)… But because they have the tech to ensure that the listeners have all the new apps and options.

Top flight guests are already lining up for the Jack Blood Show, and we are super psyched to help them reach everyone.

We will be expanding to TV / video in the very near future.

News / Satire / Art / History / Politics / Culture Jamming…. The Jack Blood Show will most likely sound much as you remembered it.

To support us – please consider monthly donations of any kind to jackblood@hotmail.com And always try to click our sponsors.

I greatly look forward to working with all of you! If it’s not fun – its work!

Absolutely horrible. Last Friday night, December 2nd 2016, at the d Satya Yuga Art Collective in Oakland, AKA: The Ghost Ship; 36 people gave up the ghost, dying in a massive blaze that has also set the internet on fire. News Orgs, and the authorities are looking for someone to blame. The man who created, and leased the collective art space, Derick Ion Almena is the #1 target. But there is much more to the story…

The first complaint came in 2014. Piles of trash were reported next to the building. Later that year, construction materials blocking the sidewalk drew another complaint. Last month, another was lodged, leading to an investigation of illegal construction inside.

The warehouse that was engulfed in flames on Friday night, leaving at least 36 people dead, was well known to people who spent time there for being filled with illegal residences and potentially hazardous construction. Known as the Ghost Ship, it had become an artists’ colony, a refuge from the Bay Area’s rocketing rents, and a space for performances like the concert that was underway when the fire erupted.

The tragedy prompted questions about what officials should have done to shut down the motley tenement. It also brought attention to the boom in illegal housing across the region, where many people have resorted to makeshift living arrangements because they have been priced out of the regular market. The questions were many: How did the fire start? Was it accidental or deliberate? Will anyone be punished for the carnage?

The building did not have a permit for residences, or one for performances. Its landlord had a history of owning properties with building violations. People who had lived in the warehouse or visited described a place rife with fire hazards — a boarded-up upstairs exit, a cobbled-together stairway made partly of wooden pallets, propane tanks used to heat water, and piles of flammable debris.

Regulatory Payola, and Gentrification rides again

“Never let a good crisis go to waste”, a phrase made most popular by Chicago Mayor, former Obama Chief of Staff Rham “Rhambo” Emanuel. Rham’s dad Benjamin was in the Israeli terrorist group Irgun…(Irgun Zvai Leumi targeted British forces, UN officials, and Palestinian Arabs in the lead up to Israeli independence in 1948.) But Rham likely learned this phrase from various professors of Neo Hegelianism. Its basis is rooted in the essence of a philosophy by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s provenance, and dialectic: “the rational alone is real,”

Rham’s full quote, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” (Its worth noting that Churchill and others have used this method for millennia. Yet we never seem to learn.)

The region has it’s history. In the 1970’s and 80’s the move on the Bay Area artists by real estate moguls, represented by then Mayor (now Senator) Diane Feinstein, is legendary. The response to that assault on underground punk rock clubs, and squatting local artists, who along with Police reform groups, lead riots against the SF City Hall in the aftermath of the Dan White trial… Unforgettable. See White Night Riots.

*Credit to Jello Biafra and the “Dead Kennedys” for putting it all into perspective, with their music, specifically “Lynch the Landlord“.

Even today the homeless mismanagement by San Francisco is well documented. Same as in your city I’d imagine.

So when I saw the news reports of this tragic incident, my first thoughts after grieving, were wrapped up in the consequences, and to the question I ask myself no matter what happens…. CUI BONO, or who benefits?

THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF THE GODS – GO I

We mostly take for granted what Artists mean to a community. That is what makes this disaster all the worse. The people lost in this were integral to the city. Poor yes, but loved and needed all the same. I can only imagine what my city would be feeling if 36+ of our people died in one night. It may help some of you to re-brand this into a what if: Say the entire Golden State Warrior basketball team died in a horrific plane crash. Sorry for the imagery, but for those us tied to the cultural community… This is how we see it. We are only used to losing our people one at a time.

But I do not have to “imagine”….

In 1987 I lived in a converted Baptist church in Ballard, a northern suburb of Seattle, and the town I grew up in. Stain Glass, Church pews, Alter… The Church was home to around 10 artists, and also functioned as a recording studio for local bands. We threw the occasional party / happening / gallery opening. It was founded by record producer, and artist Gordon Rafael. Gordon was a well known Seattle musician, but ultimately made his bones, and got his universal Cred. playing in the band “Sky Cries Mary”, and by producing the first Strokes record. I was fortunate to record with him many times… He is one of the purest spirits Ive ever met. He christened the studio “Ars Divina” (divine art) and it became a movement.

We were sound asleep when it began, it a room with no windows or escape. Thankfully we weren’t so out of it that we didn’t smell the smoke. If not, I wouldn’t be here typing this, my Daughter (who is an artist), and my son wouldn’t exist, and… For what it’s worth, If I may be presumptuous… The rEVOLution might not be what it is today.

The fire started from a faulty wire in an outlet we had plugged the studio lamp into. It rapidly turned into a full on 5 alarm blaze. We had heard that the neighbors, whom were interviewed by the countless news reporters on the scene to exploit our bad luck, literally watched and quietly cheered while the building went up. They might as well have been roasting hot dogs and marshmallows as they did so. Didn’t matter that real people were inside, they didn’t bother calling the SFD. To quote Austin Police when a troublesome club caught fire…. “Burn Baby Burn”. Of course the neighbors of Ghost Ship were similarly antagonistic towards the occupants in Oakland.

I lost everything. I had invested all my ill gained fortune into recording equipment: 4 track, several sets of various drums, Amps, guitars, PA… Of course I had no insurance. And everything I owned was in the place… Pictures, childhood artifacts, clothing etc etc etc…. I ran into the fire repeatedly to retrieve what I could, and I vividly remember a fireman outside saying, “whatever is in there it isn’t worth your life”. It was my life. Now my life was caked with smoke and water damage. All was lost. But I was alive. I moved on. Got a new place to live, but never truly recovered from it. I would do it all over again though. So this is a circumstance I can totally relate to.

I have no real data to show that general artist space in Ballard, or for that matter Seattle was compromised by our fire, but one can assume that it, and incidences like it, didn’t help. Our family has just moved back to Seattle as of last year. As we were looking around for space to live in and work in; we found that it doesn’t exist. As with any town or city… There are countless unused buildings, miles of commercial space… NONE of it to be used creatively, and most of it soon to be new, poorly made Amazon condos.

THIS IS OUR FUTURE

Back in the 1980’s / turn of the century Europe, before the EU consolidation; and the yuppie takeovers, before universal over regulation… Artists, and squatters could insinuate themselves into abandoned buildings, and re-purpose them. The state even subsidized it. If the un-leased tenants used the space to create a better situation for the citizenry, either by having exhibitions, concerts, or by helping the poor and homeless… They could receive government grants. (A much better plan than section 8, or the NEA grants to the selected few idle rich) Many an alternative, non mainstream art or rave show was put on at these “Unstitutions”. (I coined that word, use with credit please) Entire tours were planned to play these buildings by musicians. One or two incidents later, greed crept in, and the buildings were emptied and disconnected from the DIY chain. Are we better for it?

How many “cool” new neighborhoods in the USA were cleared, and created by starving artists who made these areas safe for Wholefoods? (the kiss of death for any artist community, and a foreshadowing of things to come) We give, but never seem to get back.

Freedom can be messy. It can be dangerous. I know that this concept does not go over well with the upwardly mobile, big government liberals, or the aged… But suffice to say, “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS UTOPIA” – Security is just another consumable illusion, and simply another word for CONTROL. EG: Homeland Control Dept., Social Control numbers, The Control Industrial Complex….

Obviously the questions will now be asked and answered. How can the Oakland fire be prevented from happening again? The question is answered before the tongue finishes the words. Regulation! No future landlord or property owner will have anything to do with artists in CA. In fact, I was a bit surprised that this particular warehouse was allowed to exist to begin with. Credit Oakland’s economy maybe… No neighborhood will want a place like this next door to them, and no city will allow a congregation of forces to create one again. Too dramatic? Too pessimistic? One bad apple spoils the juice?

At what point do the players in this heart breaking tragedy owe responsibility to the victims? How can the city demand accountability, and from whom should they demand it?

Should the guy who managed the property, and collected payments from residents… Derick Almena be tried as the lone scapegoat? Should the slumlord who owned the building be brought to justice? How about the extortion racket known as Code Enforcement… Because I believe they may have been the catalyst here by making public safety so GD expensive, and impossible!

Should the residents themselves be held responsible for willingly living in a potential “death trap”? Having been in these shoes myself I DO have empathy, but if it was me living at Ghost Ship, I would sacrifice any potential danger for the opportunity to work and live in an affordable space. A space where I could even showcase my work… So much so, that I would even have signed a waiver to do it.

What if instead of barricading one’s self into a building, and hiding any potentially dangerous problem; such as wiring, heat source, cooking source, bathroom source, sprinkler systems, or fire exit availability…. What if instead of fear from regulators, or permit police; the tenants were encouraged to open the doors and get help from city authorities and the community, without fear or cost or removal. What if? Would 36, and counting people still be alive? Or do we just have to chalk it all up to: Shit happens and always will?

NO! I am not “Trumpeting”, shilling for the GOP, the Koch Bros, Soros, Neo Anarchists, or the Libertarian Party (… wait… I already mentioned Kochs…) A platform for GlobalCorp deregulation.

If you think that I am anti regulation or anti laws… I guess you got me. Not because I am a government hating “anarchist” just for the sake of it. While its true that a “voluntaryist” society is massively preferable… Its also true that ALL laws, regulations are, and always have been selectively enforced… According to who you know, who you blow, and the name of your law firm. This theoretically helps elimination the competition for the monopolists.

Yeah yeah… the water, the food, the air….. what about the poor kids that lost their lives in this fire!!!!! Something must be done! Count on THAT. Stick a fork in us….

How is the EPA doing on the lead in the water crisis, not just in Flint MI… but everywhere our decrepit war weary infrastructure exists? How is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doing on the issue of “Nuclear turds” or leaks? Do you feel “protected” by the pre-programmed “pigs” that are geared to NOT find leaks in our national oil pipelines? What about cell phone dangers, or wifi health issues? How bout the food and drugs regulated by the bought and paid for Monstanto (Bayer), Conag. FDA? How about the chemically induced air, or furniture for that matter…. clean?

You FEEL safe, but you are not. So I ask you…. Why give up your liberty for the illusion of Security AKA CONTROL?

How does this end?

The lord of land will get reimbursed “Lucky Larry style” for the building, which will be leveled and turned into multi-use shopping condos. Politicians will grandstand, and go hunting for new offenders; and the people of Oakland will mourn their dead.

While the loss of life is sad, fires will continue to happen… Art however, taken over by the powers that be at conglomerates are us… May not.

So before you shake you fist and demand that “something must be done” (Reaction), consider all sides of the solutions. Come together as communities to preserve your culture, and stave off the landlords, and the Wholefoods’ Condo encroachments. You would do well to volunteer your energy to help your local eccentric artists, and not stand by while they are eliminated and legislated out of existence. Face it…. These are the people that make life interesting, and in the end, make both urban and country life safe for free thought.

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George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion. John Adams Insurrection act, Alien and Sedition Acts. FDR rounded up, and locked up American in camps, Lincoln locked up everyone suspending Habeas Corpus, and Posse Comitatus…. Wilson (Fed Prez) locked up anyone criticizing WW1 (anarchists) and instituted his own Sedition Act, (made it a crime to “willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of the Government of the United States” or to “willfully urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of the production” of the things) Nixon had people shot at Kent State, set up in the streets via Cointelpro, and Operation Chaos. Bush Sr. gunned down the Weaver family at Ruby Ridge. Clinton went after the American Militia, Murdered children at WACO, and at the A. Murrah Building in OKC, And assassinated those holding information to damage his family… Bush ushered in his own Insurrection Act aka: The Patriot Act and the 2007 Defense Authorization Bill, where it was made justifiable to kidnap Americans, and use torture to force them to incriminate themselves and others. (Many foreigners taken to Gitmo, in…. Cuba) Obama raided anarchists homes looking for books… Used the IRS (as did 6 other Presidents) to hassle conservatives, Drone attacked Americans without trial, oversaw the murder of journalists, Raided those selling raw milk, or producing life saving CBD… Shall I continue?

Some of the victims of American Tyranny (too numerous to mention) are Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Fred Hampton, Karen Silkwood, (Long list of whistle blowers..) Journalists: Gary Webb, Michael Hastings, James Hatfield, LaVoy Finicum, even artists like Lenny Bruce, John Lennon, and Jim Morrison suffered for their expression, or were murdered by the State…..

All I am saying is that we here in the US often get very righteous in light of our history of our own state sponsored Tyranny.

Yet in the days following the death of Cuban revolutionary, and defacto leader of Cuba for the last 57 years… The reactionary US propaganda machine, Neo Cons, and social media is afire with labels such as “brutal dictator”, thug, murderer…

To be clear, I am NOT championing Castro.

I asked this question on my Facebook page:

Which US president wasn’t a total murdering POS? Really… I wanna know. *Writing on this tomorrow for the Blog (+ rash of connected national violence….). I may not be a big Castro fan (I have friends that have had sit downs with him and swear he’s a truther..) but comparatively – what’s the difference between Fidel and say: LBJ/Nixon/Reagan/Bush/Bush/Clinton/Obomba? #FTAAaDoneDeal

I received many answers, and of course condemnation from those who believe it “un-American” to even have such a debate. Ironic huh? People often get very upset with me for pointing out that even THEIR Emperor is naked. Rigid thinking, hair standing up on reddening necks, white knuckles… It comes, no doubt, from controlled belief systems and political dogma. This conditioning usually stems from fear, and insecurity… But that is a concept for another article.

The two US Presidents that seemed to get the most love (sans Reagan – shivers at the thought of REX 84 ) were Carter and Kennedy. But even they were flawed, and bloodstained. Carter with his Z-Big, Rockefeller, CFR Trilateral Crew, and Kennedy with his fiercely Anti Communist, Skull n Bones crew…

Jimmy Carter the self-professed advocate for human rights demonstrated quite the penchant for bloodshed. While he didn’t initiate any aggressive invasions of foreign nations the way his predecessors and successors did in Vietnam,Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan and many other countries, Carter proved remarkably generous at providing financial, military, diplomatic and ideological support for fascist dictatorships that tortured and killed millions of members of their domestic populations in an effort to crush popular movements for social justice. Some of the regimes he backed carried out mass slaughter that amounted to genocide.

“Carter was the least violent of American presidents but he did things which I think would certainly fall under Nuremberg provisions,” said (gatekeeper extraordinare) Noam Chomsky. Much like Nobel Peace-prize winner Barack Obama 30 years later, Carter was an advocate of human rights in the abstract, but of repression and imposition of power through violence in practice.

It was JFK who decided that South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem needed to be removed from office NOT because Diem was engaging in repression against Buddhists, but because Kennedy had become convinced that Diem was an impediment to winning the war. As a result, when prodding from Washington failed to work, it was JFK who authorized the coup that resulted in Diem’s overthrow and assassination on November 1, 1963 (this act set up the Vietnam war…)

JFK backed an ill-advised (oil) coup in Iraq too…. The USSR leaning dictator was not a saint, but you should generally avoid killing other countries’ leaders when you can help it (I would argue you should avoid killing people, full stop, but that’s another matter). Coincidentally (ahem) the coup put the Iraqi Baath party in power, setting in motion the chain of events that would result in (Safari Club / CIA hit man) Saddam Hussein’s decades-long rule over the nation.

The Emmanuel Goldstein of the west? Son of elite sugar plantation owners? CIA asset? Drug Dealer?

Ok, Its complicated. To simplify it I will ask a general question, Name ONE hard lining dictator in the western hemisphere that was NOT installed by US foreign policy. I am waiting….

Fidel was brutal to those whom opposed him. He censored the media, and had people executed. I believe this. I also think in many ways he had no choice but to rule in this capacity. Its how you last for nearly 60 years in an environment of assassination and overthrow. I will NOT justify it.

Castro was of course the designated driver for US policy driven change. Batista had gotten too big for his britches. Stopped taking orders, and was extorting some powerful elites in the process. the Gaddafi of his day, creating a dangerous example of economic independence from the bankers. Even the mafia had tired of Batista’s one sided racket. So Coup de tête was in the air. Thus Fidel Castro’s 26th of July 1959 Movement, and its allies against the authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. Who better that two sons of wealthy oligarchs to usher it in. Fidel and Che. But as it always happens, dictators seek a better deal. They do not take dictation.

Jim Perloff writes: “Note the absurdity: the U.S. spent billions and sent 500,000 troops around the world to Vietnam to “fight communism,” yet it wouldn’t lift one finger to fight communism in its own backyard.”

“In the 1950’s, Illuminati bankers David Rockefeller and Eugene Meyer organized a Cuban partnership, called the Moa Bay Mining Co.

As his appartchiks, Rockefeller hired the three stooges of the Caribbean, namely Fidel Castro, E. Howard Hunt and George H.W. Bush.

Rockefeller’s Citi-Bank provided the financial support that Fidel Castro needed for his ouster of Batista, and that Rockefeller had profited immensely from Castro’s fictitious “expropriation” of Moa Bay mining fields.

Castro received his training in the arts of economic terrorism and guerrilla warfare from US Army Special Forces, Col. William A. Morgan of Ohio.

Rockefeller maintained actual physical control of all of “Castro’s” oil and mining operations. Meanwhile he collected extravagant profits from endless “Pentagon bailouts” by the U.S. taxpayer.

Castro was a Meyer-Rockefeller-Dulles lackey. With Zapata Oil as cover, he soon became Bush’s favorite candyman. Castro was doubtless pre-briefed on the impending April 1961 invasion, by a clutch of clueless Miami Cubanos, who were lead straight to their slaughter in a perfect military gauntlet, a crossfire in a long and narrow bay of water at the “heel” of a unique Cuban landmass, in fact a marine swampland drenched in oil, known as the Zapata.”

The USA’s all hands on deck approach to assassinate Castro is legend. The creepiest of slime put on the project at Fort Detrick MD, many interlocked with JFK conspirators working a fast acting cancer weapon, that most likely was used on Castro comrade Hugo Chavez. Its a very interesting story fleshed out in books like “Dr Mary’s Monkey” by Ed Haslam.

Even through all of this, Fidel remained untouched. The rhetoric from the USA only worked to solidify his power in Cuba, and beyond. This my friends is not incompetence, but design.

In 2003 interviewed a “fellow” at the Rockefeller controlled American Enterprise Institute, Mark Falcoff. I know that this kinda slipped out, but he told me that Rockefeller had men up and down the Cuban food chain. I believe Fidel’s brother, and current president of Cuba Raul Castro is one of these assets. If not the next in line , Miguel Díaz-Canel will certainly be a Rockefeller man. Or else.

Of course the American Left wing will tell you about all the good things Fidel did. You’ve heard them. Health care, Literacy, Championing the cause of anti apartheid in both Africa, and against Israel for the Palestinians. They will tell you that Fidel turned on the Banks, and stopped the FTAA. Most of which is as glamorized, and glossed over as is the truth about Cuba vs the never ending array of Anti Castro propaganda. Suffice to say…. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was many thing to many people. Its just not that easy to make a blanket statement regarding his legacy. This is why I write today.

NEXT?

Trump has vowed to roll back any diplomacy that was enacted by the Obama Administration. He has said that he will throw down with some tough negotiations, which Cuba will comply with or face renewed sanctions. Of course these sanctions are most brutal to the citizenry. As we have witnessed world wide. The controllers always live quite nicely. For Trump and the GOP, gaining a voter advantage in Florida is a driving force. They will find many allies in banking and industry to help move the football over the goal line. Obama’s (David Rockefeller / Henry Kissinger) policy towards Cuba was a means to an end. Now that Fidel is gone (officially, because like the death of Osama Bin Laden… there is ample evidence to show Fidel has been dead more that 10 years) tweeking of that policy cant stand for some adjustments.

The key to all of this is to control further revolutions in Central and South America, control resources there, and ultimately consolidate the hemisphere into one Regional government. David Rockefeller’s bucket list dream.

It is that time of year again. Yes, the gateway to Christmas shopping, decorations, A GMO Turkey in every pot… Or if your willing, and able; a NON GMO, no Chemically induced bird. Preferably deep fried thank you.

Its a time to take special inventory of what we are thankful for. 2016 was an especially cruel year, so if youre like me, this may require some calculus.

Normally our family tries to get an extra Turkey to cook, slice, and make into to soup and sandwiches, which we take to the city’s many homeless. Turkey on white, with mayo and lettuce… Soup is rich and fat, with carrots, celery, sweet corn, onions, garlic, and egg noodles. But its been a bad year in the Blood house. The rents are too damn high! Ours up 15% from last year. Taxes are too damn high. We are putting in almost $1000.00 a month, and this is money we would use to give back, or god forbid… pay for healthcare, or even take a trip. So this year it doesn’t seem possible to help others as we normally would. I guess we can thank the Takers for that. Regressive monetary policies can have that affect on us all. Like so many of you, we are one bad month from being homeless ourselves.

But “paying it forward” is important to us, so we will find a way to do something. Gathering blankets, and warm clothing to share in the big chill of winter is another local idea we are pursuing. Last year I spent a few nights under bridges with just a sleeping bag to live what others go through every night. Its a hard way to sleep. No one should have to do that, but if they do we can hopefully make it a little better for them.

“Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers.”

Every Thanksgiving we hear a justifiable outcry on social media about the plight of our indigenous people in America. Issues of genocide, and murder crowd the table with which we engorge ourselves. This year is particularly glaring with the situation at Standing Rock North Dakota. Its difficult to debunk the Indian complaints, and to them a whole lot of TAKING has occurred over the last 4 -500 years. In a perfect world, instead of pardoning a turkey, which is an annual goof put on by our sitting President of golf… Perhaps a pardoning of Leonard Peltier would serve Mr Obama’s legacy better. Dont count on it. Dont Count on him or Mr Trump stopping the attack on native protesters at Standing Rock, or stopping the pipeline in question. Its only water after all. Be thankful we dont murder the lot of ya. Be thankful for petro chemical Inc.

So yeah, while its tempting to be pessimistic, and there’s a lot to complain about… Its Not the spirit of the day. That we take back.

This then is my prayer…

Cue music:

Thanks for political incorrectness….. Without it we would be nothing but file sharing drones.

Thanks for cat videos….. for which we can finally all agree on something, that, in fact cats are cute, though also truly an evil spawn.

Thanks for “Black Friday” ….. One day a year, not counting Memorial day, President’s day, Columbus day, Veteran’s day, Independence day, Mother’s day…. etc etc… That we can be herded like morons for discount slave made mattresses, and technology. Monky see, monkey do.

Thanks for never ending Hallmark channel holiday movies…. One of our true American exports; Boring Drivel. It keeps wanna be, and used to be actors employed, and the TV bar low for future reality stars.

Thanks for Mandatory holiday police DUI checkpoints, and forced blood draws…. You may be Nazi Vampires, but damn it… you are OUR Nazi Vampires. Without them; parasitical attorneys, prosecutors, bureaucrats, and jailers might all be out of work.

Thanks for egg nog….. Which is so delicious that big dairy only sells it 45 days a year. Just giving the people what the want eh?

Thanks for the lame duck holiday congress….. You’d think that by not making more selctively enforced laws, we would all be the better for it. But No, some of the worst legislation ever crafted in the history of the USA was slid by on by us over the holidays. The Federal Reserve Act, and the 16th amendment for instance.

So much to be thankful for and so little time.

Thanks to my friends and family, especially the ones that didn’t stop talking to us because we backed the wrong candidate…. or because we refused to vote for any of them.

Thanks to everyone that votes with their money, and their time…. YOU will change things in the real.

Thanks to those in the peace consciousness… go forth and multiply.

Thanks to every one of you – every day of the year. Much love my brothers and sisters.

The 53rd anniversary of the JFK assassination is here. Much has been written, and verified about this out in the open American Coup, and high level fear control program. Whether you are reading this now, or in the future, you must admit that the event shaped us as a nation; and delivered us to where we are today. War and monopoly. Liberty in name only. Total control of our lives, and a consistent degree of withering opportunities at the end of a leash.

“None are more hopeless enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Ever since Mr Trump shockingly made history by becoming the first Billionaire President – Elect, and in doing so notched a first for a private citizen with zero experience in governing at the highest level… The nation is once again in a debate about what it all means. Many traumatized. Others exuberant. Maybe not since the JFK killing have we been brought to such a shocking conclusion, in such a short amount of time.

Its not how you play the game, its if you WIN that counts.

Early November 9th, 2016 I was watching the results of the “election” with my 13 year old son. Like most teenagers today, he is basically apolitical. But also like all of our children, he is somehow keenly aware that this turn of events will affect him somehow. Its a meme world we live in today, so our children are perhaps more aware of circumstances than we were at their age.

It made me recall the 1972 election. I was only 9 years old, so I wasn’t cognitive in the 1968 election that gave us Richard Nixon… Or the chain of public Assassinations that put him there. But much had changed in 4 years in the country. The war, the dissent, and the ravaging of liberty in the streets of America. My parents, against my protests voted for Nixon. This was confusing, as we had a bust of JFK in our living room. How could they?

Even at 9 years old I remember pleading with my parents to vote for McGovern. Now you might say that it would’ve made little difference. But what followed was catastrophe. We came as close as ever, until last Nov 9th, to having a billionaire as President…. That being Nelson Rockefeller.

Bretton Woods (Gold Standard Ended), Cointelpro, the initiation of the American Drug War (to crack down on Black nationalists and anti-War Hippies)… And my cousins coming home from Henry Kissinger’s golden triangle, strung out on heroin. The transition to corporate control of America, and the world… Had taken a quantum leap. In less than a decade, “Greed is Good” would become a national slogan for upward mobility. Yuppies replaced Yippies, some Yippies like Jerry Rubin actually becoming yuppies… The stage was set for massive corporate consolidation via hostile take overs, debt as money, and a win at all costs mentality. Wall Street was in charge as it never was before. Kill or be killed. Live and let die.

I do not recall my parents attempting to explain this to us children. We voraciously sought distraction, medication, and escape. We found it. Many times at the other end of the police state.

So when my son asked me post election, what does it mean? I could only tell him that Mr Trump would likely be his president until he was 17. I had hoped that the massive scope of such a major block of time in his life would be equal to the gravity of the situation. But, as dads do… I sought to come up with a better answer. This contemplation forced me into weighing the essence of such a historical event. The conclusions I came up with still stir me to my core.

Not who are you…. WHAT are you?

It happened incidentally as I was doing some light reading. A book named “We Never Learn” by Eric Davidson, published in 2010. (Eric is a fantastic writer, and also the singer for the band “The New Bomb Turks“). Its not a political book, but more of a historical recount of music and culture in the late 80s and 90s. In doing so, he shines a megawatt flashlight on where we came from vs where we are now.

I am reading along, inspired, when I reached a chapter which included an interview with “Long Gone John” the sole proprietor of the DIY record label “Sympathy for the Record Industry“. If you follow viable Alternative music – you will know them and love them. He hand created every record he distributed in his living room. He made hand shake deals without contract, and floated bands he loved by buying them gear, and helping them on tours. Now, if you know anything about the music business, this was extremely RARE back then, and absolutely non existent now….

Long Gone John basically discovered the group ‘The White Stripes’ – They have since gone mega-platinum, eventually breaking up for singer / guitarist Jack White’s solo career. Now, keep in mind that without this generous genius, and his indy label… and it isn’t even really debatable… There would have been no White Stripes, or king of the world Jack White.

So, what happened? A greedy manager comes along, and convinces a very ambitious Jack White to completely fuck over the man and the label that made them so moderately successful. World domination, and financial status a sweet carrot indeed. And not one that many are programmed to refuse.

It is also pretty well substantiated that Jack White is not loved in his hometown of Chicago. He has screwed over a lot of people. Same can be said about just about anyone who we deem as “successful”. Of course there are exceptions. Merit based industry winners such as sports’ athletes comes to mind. To me, it is literally the Crossroads. Sell your soul to the devil for rule and domain of earth. You may know the story of Delta Blues King Robert Johnson, who it is said made a deal with the (metaphorical) devil at the crossroads. An allegory for the ages. Jesus Christ faced the same decision it is said. A historical meme of “Biblical proportions”.

None of this a “revelation” to me. There is nothing new here. What needs to be reiterated though, is the fact that people, and usually people of a wanting status, or class; respect this kind of success. Ive witnessed this first hand in my own life. I have turned down deals that I felt were unethical… Refused to turn on my friends for favor of those offering monetary kinship. I have watched as people around me took those deals became household names, and examples of success and ….. barf… even virtue. This it seems, is what the people revere. Donald J Trump calls them “Killers”. He was trained by his own father to be one. I was not.

So at the end of the day, there is a new tide coming. Wash, rinse… Repeat.

What do I tell my son. Is it what I told myself? That victory without fairness, and compassion is hollow? Or do I hold up his new president, and men like Jack White as an example? Because when you look into the mirror and stare back at yourself…. Will you be disappointed that you are not a massive success in the eyes of your peers? Will you be OK with the fact that you did not sell your soul, and thus are just another face of the crowd? At what price honor?

One of my all time heroes, at least as an artist, but also as a man…. Was Vincent Van Gogh. In him we have a brilliant, supernova failure. A man who never succeeded in his lifetime. Never sold a painting. As you know his work is potentially the most coveted of any artist, anywhere in the world. Do we remember him as a failure or a visionary?

Socrates, the Greek father of philosophy, lived minute to minute, and owned nothing. Given a chance for status vs prison and death…. He chose the latter. What a mook. Anyone remember the Thirty Tyrants / the Oligarchy of 30 who condemned him?

Buddha, AKA Siddhartha Gautama, a prince soon to be king; turned down a royal existence through trading in violence and suffering… To be a homeless beggar.

History remembers not the victors du jour, in a light of success or contributions to humanity…. History remembers them as devils. Or not at all. So while a kill or be killed mentality is negotiable for the short term, for instant gratification, and may even be admired by the have nots….. It is NOT something I will teach my children. It is NOT something I will emulate myself, and it is not anything universally real.

I never put much stock in the coin of the realm, or the flavor of the day. I do not happen to believe that a President has much more power than a spokesman for the latest soap, or a ribbon cutter for the new mall. Its human of me to wish that can be different… That change can happen, and that I can point to it and be proud of what it represents.

It seems that if this were to actually become a reality…. the only end is to watch a powerful man, who has undergone a complete paradigm shift, to lead “we the people” to a peaceful honor…. To watch that man go against everything ingrained in him by his royal lineage….. Have his head exploded in front of the world.